Hillary Clinton Makes History — NBC.com

By Nancy L. Cohen, June 7, 2016

Alex Seitz-Wald and Irin Carmon of NBC have a smart piece up about today’s history-making moment. I spoke with Irin on Monday, a few hours before AP called Clinton as the presumptive nominee.

In 2008, Clinton downplayed her gender and got beat by a candidate who went on to be first African-American president. Her advisers feared the country was not ready for a woman president, and even less so for a feminist one. This year, she seemed more comfortable leaning into into the idea of making history.

“It’s obvious that sexism stopped a woman from being president for nearly 200 years of American history, and once women came into the political arena, it wasn’t exactly like the old boy’s club was rolling out the red carpet,” said Nancy L. Cohen, the author of book “Breakthrough: The Making of America’s First Woman President,” which came out earlier this year.

But Cohen thinks Clinton has an opportunity in the general election against a “certifiable misogynist” like Donald Trump. “Sometimes I think Trump’s real slogan is make America manly again,” Cohen said. “I think that Clinton has showed that she likes to fight those kind of bullies, and she feels like she’s fighting for all women. I think her best self as a campaigner comes out in these situations.”

Clinton will still have to contend with Sanders, who responded sharply to a question Monday about whether it was sexist for him to stay in the race and potentially endanger the election of the first woman president.

“Is that a serious question?” Sanders snapped. “To say that it is sexist that any — so if Hillary Clinton runs for President is your point, that it is sexist for any man to oppose her?”

There’s plenty of work ahead for Clinton, primarily integrating Sanders and his supporters into the party ahead of the contest with Trump.

“I hope everybody takes a moment to be really excited,” said Stephanie Schriock, president of Emily’s List. “And then we gotta role up our sleeves and get ready for November.”